


like a forest fire | camren (au)

by blake0tyler



Category: Fifth Harmony (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-16 21:04:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9289490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blake0tyler/pseuds/blake0tyler
Summary: On the first day that Lauren starts working at Starbucks, she swears to herself that she will never write her number down on someone’s coffee cup.//“What do you write about?”“Anything that interests me.”“Like what?”“Things that people talk about in cafés. Cities. How the sun is going to die one day. Girls with pretty eyes. The middle of the universe. Being young.”//Camren | AU | Three-Shot





	1. I.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N:
> 
> This is cheesy as fuck. Just so you know. Had to take a little break from all the intensity that is ‘right there in the details’ right now, but I’ll make sure to update that one this week as well. In the meantime, enjoy part one of the fluffiest Camren fic I’ll ever write, probably ;)
> 
> -Blake

On the first day that Lauren starts working at Starbucks, she swears to herself that she will never write her number down on someone’s coffee cup. No matter how cute they are. She will simply not allow herself to fall down to that level.

“It’s so ridiculous,” she tells Normani when it comes up in conversation during one of her first days. “Completely desperate, and such a cliché too. I’d never do it.”

Normani gives her a knowing smile. “You just wait, new girl. It happens to all of us at some point.” She grins, leaning back against the counter. “Someone unexpectedly attractive will walk in and you just won’t be able to stop yourself, no matter how hard you try.”

She waves her hand in front of her face pretending to be fanning herself. Lauren simply rolls her eyes at her new colleague and continues rearranging the pieces of red velvet cake, while Normani winks at her.

She hasn’t been working at Starbucks for even a month, when, indeed, it does happen.

:::

She is busy rinsing out the milk cans in the sink with her back to the counter when she hears someone cough behind her. In the hurry to spin around to help the customer, she accidentally turns the faucet the wrong way, causing an abrupt wave of water to spray up out of the sink, all over herself.

“Fuck—” she swears as the water starts dripping down the front of her white shirt, soaking right through it. The fabric keeps sticking to her stomach, as she tries to wrench out her sleeves in a pathetic attempt to clean herself up. _Jesus Christ_ – she’s been working here for like a month already, and she’s still fucking up.       

“Maybe you should take it off.”

Lauren spins around and there she is – long dark hair, big brown eyes, teasing smile on her face that can either be interpreted as suggestive or innocent, which is quite the unsettling combination.

“W-what—” Lauren stammers.

The girl’s eyes flick down to Lauren’s shirt. “Your shirt – maybe you should take it off. You don’t want to get yourself wet.”

For some reason, Lauren can feel herself getting flustered, even though it makes no fucking sense to get flustered over something like that, because _of course_ the girl doesn’t mean it like that. Damn her mind for being so goddamn inappropriate all the time.

“Yeah, um,” Lauren mumbles, pulling on the fabric. “I probably should – sorry about that – I’ll just…” She can see her manager eyeing her from the other side of the café and she quickly straightens her spine, walking up to the register. “I mean – can I get you anything to drink?”

The girl smiles at her, the corner of her lip curling up in a way that makes Lauren’s pulse heat up under her skin. “Just a cappuccino, please.”

“A-all right,” Lauren says, trying not to let the nerves of her embarrassment make her voice waver. She grabs one of the paper cups. “What’s your name?”

The girl looks Lauren up and down, smile still spread on her face. “What’s yours?” 

“Oh—” Lauren says. “I actually meant – um – for the cup, for your order, so that we can… Not really in a _what’s your name_ kind of way, you know. Just—” She has to bite down on her bottom lip really fucking hard to snap herself out of it. “I mean, I’m Lauren.”

“Lauren,” the girl repeats, her voice just a little bit raspy. “I like it… I’m Camila.”

Lauren quickly scribbles it down on the cup, praying that she’ll get the spelling right, because she does not want to ask any more questions. It’s probably best for her to say as little as possible at this point. She mumbles the total amount, before quickly turning around again to busy herself with making the cappuccino. Normani is in the back, so Lauren is the only one running the counter at the moment.

 _Fucking hell._ She curses at herself under her breath while she stirs the milk. Sure, the girl may be insanely pretty, but what the hell – get it together already.

“Um, one cappuccino for – um,” Her breath hitches. “For… Camila, was it?”

The girl takes the cup. “Thank you, Lauren.”

“You’re welcome,” Lauren mumbles. “I – um – I should probably…” She pulls on her shirt and trails off.

Camila gives her another smile. “Yeah – not that I’m not enjoying the view, though…”

Lauren can feel her eyes go wide at the girl’s comment. She looks down. The outline of her bra is completely visible under the wet shirt. She can feel Camila staring and she coughs, trying to cover up the fact that she feels extremely hot and bothered for no specific reason.

“Hey,” Camila says then, a little surprised, eyes falling down to the cup. “You got my name right.”

Lauren is still completely dazed, so all she manages to respond is, “Hm?”

Camila smiles. “You spelled my name right on the first try. Most people write down _Camilla_ , so consider me impressed.”

“Right,” Lauren mumbles. “Ok, well – I’ve got to…”

She makes an awkward gesture to the backdoor and then points down at her shirt – like the fucking idiot that she is – drawing the girl’s attention right to where her nipples must be very visible right now. _Oh my god,_ she thinks to herself, _get your act together already._

Camila grins. “See you around?”

“Yes, for sure – I mean, yeah. I’ll be here.” Lauren bites her lip hard. “I mean – sometimes I’m here. Not always. I also study and, you know, see… friends. So – yeah. Not always. But sometimes, sure. Ok. Bye.”

Camila easily winks at her and it sends an entire new wave of emotions through Lauren’s body. Then, Camila turns around and takes a few steps in the direction of the door, but not before looking back and holding her cup up. “Maybe next time I can get your number on this.”

Lauren stares after her as she disappears out of the door. This is not good. This is not good at all – because she’s actually considering it.

:::

The next time Camila walks into Starbucks, Lauren’s so startled by it that she bumps straight into Normani as soon as she catches sight of Camila by the door.

Normani frowns at her. “What are you doing?”

“I need to—” Lauren points over her shoulder. “I just – I need to go – backroom. Get… coffee… beans…”

“What the fuck are you babbling about?” Normani says, blocking Lauren’s path to the door.

“I just—”

“We’ve got more than enough coffee beans, we’re a freaking Starbucks.” Normani won’t step aside. “Break’s not until twelve, Jauregui, so get your ass back to the register.”

“But I—”

Normani turns around and Lauren curses under her breath, quickly running a hand through her hair and taking a deep inhale. _For fuck’s sake,_ she tells herself, _find your chill._

“Lauren.”

She spins around. Camila is standing in front of the counter, smiling at her.

“Hi,” Lauren squeaks out, before coughing and running her hand through her hair again.

“So,” Camila says, leaning a little bit forward against the counter. “What kind of bra are you wearing today?”

Lauren pretty much chokes on her own breath. “ _W-what_?”

Camila’s smile only grows wider at Lauren’s immediate embarrassment. She doesn’t say anything else, though, just keeps looking at Lauren with that smile on her face that’s making Lauren’s head spin – which is why it takes her a moment to remember that they’re in fucking coffee shop and she’s supposed to be the barista.

“Can I—” Lauren coughs again. “—help you?”

“Oh, I’m sure you can…” Camila says and Lauren’s eyes go wide at the obvious innuendo

She has to dig her fingernails into the side of her thigh, because this girl is flirting with her so _hard_ that she can barely keep her thoughts straight. “A cappuccino?” she breathes out, trying to keep her voice light. 

Camila smiles. “Please.”

Lauren takes one of the paper cups, writes the order down and scribbles _Camila_ on it without thinking, until—

“Do you remember all your customers’ names?”

Lauren looks up again. For a moment, she gets caught on the heavy brown of Camila’s eyes, the curve of her lips, the teasing smile, the line of her neck—

She doesn’t know where she finds the composure, but before she can stop herself, she locks her gaze straight into Camila’s as she says, “You remembered my name, didn’t you?”

Camila’s lips part slightly, and she just keeps staring at Lauren, while the faintest blush starts to work its way up her cheeks. Then, she tugs her bottom lip back with her teeth as she breaths out, sort of abruptly, sort of bashful, “God – your eyes…”

Lauren snaps out of it right away, quickly looking down, trying to ignore the heat that rushes through her chest at Camila’s words.

“Coffee,” she mumbles. “I’m just – yeah.”

She pushes the paper cup away from her in Normani’s direction, before turning around and trying to figure out how to keep busy while Normani is preparing Camila’s coffee. She pulls a cupboard open and starts to mess up the creamer packages, just so she can organize them again, trying not to think about Camila staring at her back, staring at her—

“You go to university here?” Camila says.

Lauren turns again, trying very hard _not_ to make it look like she’s got absolutely no idea what to do with herself. “Yes,” she says. “Uh – you too?”

Camila nods. “Creative Writing major.”

Lauren’s not able to hide her surprise. “Really?” she says. “I’m doing English Literature. What year are you in? How come I’ve never seen you around?” Camila grins and Lauren suddenly realizes that these are pretty much the first full sentences she’s managed to get out without stumbling over her words. It immediately makes her flush again. “I mean – not that we, you know, should – uh – see each other, or… I mean, on campus, of course, not like _seeing each other_ , not like _that_ —”

“I don’t have that many classes at the moment,” Camila says with a soft smile, saving Lauren from being even more of a complete idiot. “I have to write a lot, though. The amount of assignments is insane.”

“What do you write about?” Lauren asks, before she can stop herself.

Camila doesn’t waste a beat, before saying with a smile, “Anything that interests me.”

Lauren’s pretty sure she can feel her own voice fall a little lower as she forces herself to breathe out, “Like what?”

Camila thinks on it for a moment. “You know – things that people talk about in cafés. Cities. How the sun is going to die one day. Girls with pretty eyes. The middle of the universe. Being young.” The corner of her mouth curls. “You know, stuff like that.”

Lauren stares – she can’t stop.

There is something in the center her chest that tightens and untightens with every stretching second that Camila doesn’t take her eyes off her and Lauren is not sure if she is joking or not, but it doesn’t even matter, because _wow._

“There are plugs right in the corner, over there.”

Camila’s expression shifts into confusion as soon as the words leave Lauren’s mouth and Lauren swears at herself internally, because _damn it_ , why must she always make such a fucking fool of herself?

“If you ever want to write here some time,” she adds, breathlessly. “There are plugs right by that table in the corner – so if you… need a space to work, or… or something. You can plug your laptop in.”

Fuck, she’s blushing really hard right now and Camila just smiles as she realizes what Lauren is trying to say and Lauren is not able to stop looking at the red of Camila’s lips and—

“One cappuccino for… Camilla?” Normani’s voice cuts through the tension abruptly. “Camilla?”

“It’s _Camila_ ,” Lauren blurts out, before she can stop herself, turning to Normani.

“Oh.” Normani glares at her for a moment, before saying, “Sorry, one cappuccino for Camila?”

Camila walks over to the other side of the counter and takes the cup from Normani, thanking her with a brief smile. Lauren watches as she turns the cup around and looks down at it. She chuckles, before walking back to Lauren.

“Didn’t you forget to write something down on this?” she says.

“I, uh—” Lauren stammers, not sure what to say.

“It’s ok,” Camila says. “Guess I’ll just have to come back some other time again. Maybe bring my laptop. I heard that there are plugs in the corner.”

She grins and then turns around, walking out of the door without saying another word, leaving Lauren a little hot and unfocused.  

“So,” Normani says, taking a step closer in Lauren’s direction, “It’s _Camila_ , huh, Jauregui?” She rolls her eyes, before adding with a teasing grin, “You are so going to write your number down on that girl’s coffee cup.”

:::

On Friday night, the next week, Lauren walks into Starbucks for her evening shift. Alex, the guy who she’s supposed to be working with tonight is already there, talking to Normani and grinning about something. For the first ten minutes, they busy themselves discussing what needs to happen, so Lauren doesn’t really pay attention to the customers. However, as soon as Normani has left and Alex asks her to clear the empty cups off the tables, Lauren takes her first proper look around the café and notices – with a shock – that Camila is sitting at the table in the corner with her laptop in front of her.

Oh my God.

Lauren bites her lip, trying to ignore the heavy tug in the center of her stomach. This is ridiculous. Camila is just a girl… There’s no reason _at all_ for her body to be reacting like this. It’s already frustrating enough that she can barely get through her shifts these days because her eyes keep flicking over to the door, trying to be prepared for the moment that Camila comes walking in again.

She clears the tables as quickly as possible, not looking over to the corner on purpose, hoping that Camila hasn’t noticed her yet. As soon as she’s back behind the counter, Alex walks up to her again.

“Laur, would you mind going around with these?” He hands her a tray with small cups on it. “I made some cinnamon hot chocolate tasting samples.” 

Lauren stares at him. “Um, yeah, I would but… um, maybe for now, I can just run the counter and… _you_ can go around with the samples?”

Alex raises his eyebrow. “Is this about that girl over there?”

“ _What_?” Lauren chokes out. “What are you—”

Alex grins. “Normani told me that you’re probably going to break your never-writing-your-number-down-on-a-Starbucks-cup oath tonight.”

Lauren feels her throat tighten. “What? Why did she—”

“Besides,” Alex says with a knowing smile. “You’ve been trying not to stare at her for a solid fifteen minutes already. It’s obvious as hell.” He grins and pushes the tray with the tasting samples forward. “Come on, Lauren, these are getting cold.”

“Alex—”

He already turns around again and Lauren has no choice but to pick up the tray and start walking over to tables to ask the customers if they’d like a cinnamon hot chocolate taster. She stalls for as long as possible, but then Alex gives her another pointed look and she’s just not able to postpone it any longer—

Camila is staring at her screen, her brows slightly furrowed in concentration. For a moment, Lauren just stands and looks at her, but then she feels her cheeks heat up as she realizes what she’s doing and she quickly moves forward.

“Would you like to taste the cinnamon hot chocolate?” she mumbles, trying not to let her voice waver.

Camila looks up. “Lauren.”

“Camila.”

Camila smiles and then leans back into her chair. “I was already kind of disappointed that my favorite barista wasn’t here when I came in, but it looks like it’s my lucky day after all.”

For some reason, Lauren manages to keep her thoughts straight long enough to joke, “Alex already has a girlfriend.”

Camila grins. “Do you?”

Lauren’s breath hitches in the back of her throat. “No.”

“Good,” Camila says. “In that case, you’re definitely my favorite barista.”

The tension intensifies a little bit, so Lauren quickly puts the tray down on the Camila’s table and says, “Cinnamon hot chocolate?”

Camila takes one of the small cups and twists it around, looking at it, before grinning and saying, “Guess if I want to get your number, I’m really going to have to start trying harder…”

Lauren can feel herself start to blush again. God – this girl.

She shifts a little. “Are you – are you writing?”

Camila nods and then says, “Have you read _Aquarium_ by David Vann?”

Lauren shakes her head.

“We have to write a ten thousand word pastiche as a writing exercise,” Camila says. “We could pick any book we’d like, so _Aquarium_ is what I’m working on.”

“Is it good?”

Camila grins. “My writing?”

Lauren blushes a little harder. “The book.”

“It’s the absolute _best_ ,” Camila says, her face lighting up. “One of my favorites, actually. I’ve never read anything quite like it. It’s so cruel but beautiful and it’s about so many important things, you have no idea. Here—” She takes the book from the table, fumbles through it until she’s found the right page and then reads out, without hesitating, “ _I’ve been watching this fish every day now, the old man said. A fish that lives only to hide. The other fish are hiding, but this one has gone too far. He’s becoming unrecognizable, all twisted up like a branch, barely able to swim, fins useless. There has to be more than just hiding._ ” She looks up at Lauren again, smile on her face. “‘There has to be more than just hiding’ – such a perfect line.”

Lauren bites her lip. There’s a flutter in her stomach at the way Camila’s eyes are glinting and her lips are parted in the widest smile as she looks at Lauren, before shaking the sudden excitement off of her a little bit and adding, “Sorry, I always get way too excited if I start talking about this book. You probably have to get back to work.”

For a moment, Lauren glances back at Alex. “It’s ok – I don’t – I mean, it’s not that busy anyway…” She pushes her hands in her pockets. “Sounds like a really good book.”

Camila smiles. “Want to borrow it?”

Lauren’s so tempted – not only because of the book because mostly because it would mean that she’d have to see Camila again, to return the book, of course. But still—

“You probably need it for your assignment, don’t you?”

“Hm,” Camila mumbles. “Yeah, I actually kind of do.” Something shifts over her face, something playful, a little bold. “Maybe we could hang out sometime, though. Talk about it a little bit more.”

Lauren’s breath hitches in her throat. “Yeah – I mean, that sounds really—”

“ _Jauregui_!”  

Lauren spins around. Alex gives her an apologetic smile, but then gestures in the direction of the door pointing out that the manager has just walked in. He’s already staring down at Lauren from the other side of the café with a frown on his face.

“Fuck, sorry,” Lauren says, “I’ve got to get back.”

She hurries back to the counter without waiting for a reply. For the rest of the night, she keeps herself busy with all sorts of chores, trying not to look over at Camila again. The café slowly grows quieter, but it’s not until most of the customers have already left that Lauren notices that Camila has gathered her stuff as well and is putting on her jacket.

She runs a quick hand through her hair, trying to decide what to do. Should she still go talk to her or…

Camila makes the decision for her, walking up to the register again.

“Hey,” Lauren says, trying to keep her breathing steady.

Camila smiles. “So…” she says. “I’ve got to leave but I guess I’m going to try this one more time.”

Lauren’s not really sure what she’s talking about, so she shuffles a little awkwardly, not really knowing what to say.

Camila bites her lip, before locking her eyes into Lauren’s. “Can I get a tall cinnamon hot chocolate to go?”

“Yes,” Lauren says right away. “Of course. Coming right up.”

When she grabs the paper cup, she writes down _Camila_ and adds a fucking smiley face before she can stop herself. Then, she hesitates. She can feel her hands get a little bit sweaty as she keeps holding the cup in her hand. God – why is this so fucking difficult?

“Laur? What’s the order?”

Alex looks up at her and she quickly pushes the cup in his direction, walking over to his other side. Camila is already standing at the end of the counter. Alex finishes making the hot chocolate and Lauren is still standing there with the sharpie in her hand, biting her lip really hard, completely caught between really _not_ wanting to write her number down and _really_ wanting Camila to have her number. Fuck…

She takes a step forward. Maybe she can still—

“A tall cinnamon hot chocolate for Camila?” Alex says.

Camila looks up again, smiles at Lauren and then takes the cup. Her eyes fall down to it and for split-second Lauren swears she can see her face fall a little, but then Camila says, “Thanks, guys,” and leaves the café before Lauren can say anything else.

:::

She’s got a girl with her.

Lauren’s chest starts aching the second Camila pushes the door to Starbucks open with her arm wrapped over the shoulder of some blonde chick that Lauren has never seen around before. She can feel her eyes narrow as she takes in the way the girl laughs and whispers something in Camila’s ear. As they walk up to the counter, Camila lets her arm fall down the girl’s shoulder, but the stinging feeling doesn’t leave Lauren’s stomach.

“Yes?” Lauren says, unable to stop herself from sounding a little brisk.

“Hi, there,” the blonde girl exclaims, way too excited. “I’d like to have a non-fat caramel Frappuccino and…” the girl turns to Camila.

“… a cappuccino,” Lauren mumbles, just as Camila says the exact same thing out loud.

For a moment they lock eyes and Lauren tries to smile, because she knows she’s got no reason to act this, even if she’s not able to shake the stupid feeling off. Camila doesn’t really return the smile, though, and that pisses Lauren off right away.

“Names?” she says.

“Brooke,” the blonde girl says, with a smile.

Lauren writes it down and then makes a point of looking at Camila long enough until Camila cuts out, “Camila. With one L.”

It’s ridiculous.

Lauren feels hot and tense and she doesn’t really know _why,_ doesn’t really know what to make of Camila’s frown or where to keep her eyes when Camila and the girl take a seat on the sofa right in the middle of the Starbucks and sit really close to each other.

“Hey,” Normani says. “Isn’t that your girl?”

“What?” Lauren snaps. “ _No_. God, Mani – no.”

Normani’s eyes widen a little and she shares a look with Alex who is standing behind her.

“Didn’t you give her your number?” she says then and Lauren rolls her eyes and doesn’t answer, just walks over to the other side of the counter to start unloading the dishwasher, trying not to stare at Camila and _Brooke_ on the sofa, trying not to think about the fact that maybe if she hadn’t been so goddamn stubborn about the whole phone number thing, maybe she wouldn’t be feeling so irrationally jealous right now.

:::

Two weeks later, Lauren accidentally runs into Camila on the top floor of the English faculty building.

She’s just out of class, carrying a large stack of novels under her arm, when she rounds the corner and someone crashes straight into her, sending all the books flying to the ground. Heavy brown eyes, long dark hair, perfect red lips—

Lauren’s heart shoots up in her throat in less than a second when she realizes it’s Camila.

“Hey,” she breathes out.

Surprise falls over Camila’s face. “Hey,” she says, “Sorry, I – I wasn’t looking and—”

She leans down to pick up Lauren’s books and Lauren quickly gets down to the floor too, because Camila really doesn’t need to do that, she’s perfectly capable of—

Camila’s eyes fall on one of the books and she stops dead in her tracks, staring at it, before picking it up and holding it up to Lauren. “ _Aquarium._ ”

Lauren can feel her cheeks flush. “Yeah – I saw it at the bookstore a couple of days ago and I thought, I don’t know, it seemed like you really liked it when you talked about it, so I thought… I thought…”

She realizes that Camila’s face is pretty close to her own, when Camila says, “Have you started it yet?”

Lauren slowly nods. “Finished it already.”

Camila’s lips part slightly. For a moment, they just stare at each other. Then, Lauren snaps out of it and stumbles to her feet, taking the books from Camila. “Thanks, I – well, I’ll just… Bye.”

She’s already turned around again when Camila says, “Wait.”

Lauren slowly turns around again, not sure what to say or where to look or how to keep her heart from racing out of her chest.

Especially not when Camila says, “Want to go drink coffee somewhere?”

:::

They end up at the Starbucks, which is a little bit ridiculous, especially because Lauren prefers to keep her time spent at Starbucks to the minimum that comes along with working there. But there’s not really another coffee place close by and she has to start work in two hours, anyway, and Camila proposes it, so who is Lauren to say no?

With her fingers curled around her coffee cup, Lauren has to try her very best not to let herself get distracted by Camila’s eyes or her lips or her voice as they discuss the book – it feels like her heart is close to giving out any moment, though.

Every single time Camila’s face lights up at one of Lauren’s comments, Lauren’s starts to stumble through her sentences. Every time Camila says “But what about the part where…” Lauren is unable to stop looking at the way her eyes glint with excitement, and then at the way Camila’s cheeks flush a little when she notices that Lauren is unable to stop looking.

It’s a push and pull – a constant mess of feeling flustered and shy and heated and confident all at the same time.

“Why did you choose to study writing?” Lauren says after she’s made Camila explain exactly how she structured her pastiche of the David Vann novel.

The corner of Camila’s mouth curls upwards. “Because I don’t want to do anything unless it makes my heart burn up like a forest fire.”

Lauren bites her lip. “And that’s what writing does?”

Camila smiles. “Not just writing.”

All Lauren feels is the familiar tug at the back of her stomach as she tries not to let her mind wander, before she breathes out, “What else?”

“So many things,” Camila says right away. “Jumping off the high diving board. Talking to people who don’t want to be on their phones at the same time. Actually feeling tired – like feeling tired because you ran or you danced or you climbed five hundred steps for the best view of the city. Being naked with someone and thinking the two of you are the middle of the universe. Stumbling across the right passage in a book at the right time and thinking: _this is exactly what I’m feeling, I can’t believe someone else wrote it down._ Driving fast on empty roads. Good music. Laughing. Kissing someone that you’re really fucking into…”

Lauren’s skin is heated all over.

Then, she blurts out, “Can I read your writing?”

At that, Camila shifts back a little. “Oh—” she says. “I mean… I guess. But it’s not really – it’s not good or anything. I’m not really good at it.”

She blushes a little bit and Lauren bites her lip, forcing herself to look up into Camila’s eyes as she says, “I’m having a really hard time believing that.”

The moment stretches while Lauren is unable to stop herself from smiling and Camila just blushes and sort of looks down at the table, before looking up again and saying, “This too.”

“This – what?”

Camila briefly wets her lips. “This makes my chest burn up like a forest fire too – you looking at me like that.”

Lauren is no writer and her mind is spinning, so she hopes Camila doesn’t mind when the only thing she manages to respond is a throaty, “Same.”

:::

Camila stays to write and Lauren goes to work together with Alex, who keeps smirking at her, and she has to focus on getting people’s orders right and not messing up the way the different drinks are made – but her mind is somewhere else completely.

She’s thinking about it. She’s really thinking about it, as in flushed-cheeks-nerves-in-her-stomach- _oh-my-god-be-brave-for-once_ thinking about it – but she’s not sure if Camila will want to. The image of her and the girl from last week sitting together on that sofa is still fresh in her mind. But then, her eyes get caught on the way Camila is slowly biting on her lip, while her fingers tap the keyboard of her laptop in a rushed pace, as if there are almost too many thoughts in her head to get them all out fast enough – and Lauren decides.

She quickly glances at Alex, but her colleague seems to have everything under control, so before she can talk herself out of it again, she walks over to Camila’s table.

“Hi,” she says.

Camila looks up and smiles. “Hi.”

“So—” Lauren says, trying to talk past her nerves. “There’s this thing on Saturday night – it’s a… poetry slam event at the – at the Kingston Theatre and I thought… you might be interested in going.”

Camila stares at her.

“Ok…” she says slowly and Lauren bites her lip, because she has to _fucking say it_ if she wants it to happen, but she’s so nervous.

“I also thought,” she continues a little breathlessly. “Maybe – we could… you know, go? As in, together. As in a… a…” She can’t say the word. “Like go out. Together. To the thing. The poetry slam event. If you want to.”

Fucking hell – she’s such an idiot.

Camila’s looking a little confused now and also a little flustered and her eyes narrow slightly as she breathes out, “I want to – but I thought you weren’t interested in me like that.”

“W-what?” Lauren says.

“Well,” Camila says. “You didn’t really want to give me your number, so I thought you weren’t… That’s why I didn’t bother trying again and…”

She trails off.

“Yeah,” Lauren breathes out. “About that—”

She turns around abruptly, walking back to the counter. Her entire body feels hot as she grabs a paper cup, takes a sharpie and starts to stir the milk. About a minute later, she’s standing next to Camila again and says, “Here, a cappuccino, on the house.”

She’s feeling so flustered that she walks away again, but not before hearing Camila take a sharp intake of breath as she reads what Lauren’s written down next to her phone number.

_Like a forest fire. Call me._


	2. II.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:
> 
> I lied. I said this was going to be two parts, but there’s going to be an extra part because I just couldn’t stop writing all this romantic stuff haha. This is highly, highly fictional, because no one EVER goes on a date like this, especially not with Lauren Jauregui. :) However, I’m going to be completely unapologetic about it. Fluff, fluff, fluff, fluff, fluff. Apparently my creative mind was in the mood for something sweet. Enjoy!

Camila texts her later that night.

Lauren’s curled up on her bed, taking notes for one of her upcoming exams, books spread out all around her, when the notification pops up on her screen. Her stomach flips as she stares at the blinking light on her phone for a moment. She should wait. She should probably give it… at least half an hour or something. Her heart is beating a lot quicker inside her ribcage, though. She tries to turn her attention back to her notes, but the blinking light is very distracting. She stares at it again, biting her lip.

Then, she leans over and grabs her phone, sliding her fingers over the screen and quickly tapping on Camila’s message.

_Fuck waiting._    

It’s a picture of the Starbucks coffee cup. The message attached to it reads _best cappuccino of my life._

Lauren grins, tugging her bottom lip back with her teeth. She stares at her phone, letting her eyes go over the words a couple more times. The comment makes her feel a little bold, a little confident, so without properly thinking about she types back _Which part of ‘call me’ are you interpreting as ‘text me’ exactly?_ She presses ‘sent’ before she can stop herself.

About ten seconds later, her phone starts ringing.

A heavy shiver runs down Lauren’s spine. _Fuck._ Of course. Damn it, she even asked for it. After letting it ring for another ten seconds, she takes a deep breath, taps the screen and picks up.

“Hi,” she says, praying that her voice doesn’t give away the fact that her entire chest is suddenly tingling.

“Hey,” Camila says.

“Hey,” Lauren says again, feeling stupid about it right away.

“Hi…” Camila repeats and Lauren can see the teasing smile without seeing it. She closes her eyes and runs a hand through her hair – nervous habit. Why is it always so impossible to keep her act together around this girl? She leans back into the pillows, starting to feel a little hot, which she absentmindedly registers as a reoccurring thing when it comes to Camila, so maybe she should start getting used to it.

“H-how are you?” Lauren stutters out then, because she has to say _something._

“Really?” Camila says, playful edge to her voice. “Is that why you told me to call you instead of text you? So you could ask me how I’m doing, even though you saw me, like, an hour ago.”

“Well—” Lauren says, feeling herself get more embarrassed by the second. “—a lot can happen in an hour, right?”

Camila chuckles. “Absolutely – and don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I like hearing your voice.”

_God._ It’s a good thing that they’re talking on the phone, because Lauren can just feel herself start blushing harder with every passing moment. _Get it together._

“So…” she quickly continues, trying to shift into actual conversation instead of her just making a fool out of herself while Camila grins on the other side of the line. “Are we still on for Saturday?”

She can hear Camila laugh softly. “We’re still on.”

“Good…” Lauren breathes out, and then, because she is done with being shy and bashful all the time, she blurts out, “Let me take you out. You know – before the event.”

There’s a beat of silence and it sounds like Camila takes in a sharp breath before she says, “Ok, y-yes, sure, I would – love that.”

Lauren bites her lip, feeling her confidence kick back into place as she notices the sudden nervous edge to Camila’s voice. “Great. Text me your address. I’ll come pick you up.”

“Ok…” Camila says, before adding, “It’s a date.”

“It’s a date,” Lauren replies, voice a little raspy, unable to stop smiling.

“All right, see you on Saturday then.”

Lauren smiles. “See you on Saturday. Good night.” 

She falls back onto her mattress as soon as Camila hangs up. For a moment she just slowly breathes in and out. But then it’s like her entire body catches fire and she realizes what is happening, what they actually agreed on. She can’t help but squeal out, kicking her legs against the bed, as all the excitement and tension and endorphins start to rush through her.

Fucking hell – they’re going on a date.  

:::

“Tell me one more time what happened.”

Lauren groans in frustration, standing in front of the mirror in the tiny bathroom of her apartment, dress still half unzipped and make up only partially done. “Dinah… please pay attention.” She takes a shaky breath, trying to calm down her nerves. “I already told you – we had coffee and we talked and then she stayed afterwards to write and I had to work, but I was obviously kind of distracted because she’s just… she’s so interesting and passionate about so many different things and she’s so _attractive_ , like, I’ve never even – well, anyway, I just couldn’t really pay attention to work and I just thought to myself, maybe I should just do it, you know? Fuck being cliché. So I wrote down my number on one of the coffee cups and—”

“YES!” Dinah yells out, pumping her fist up in the air, before calling back to the kitchen. “Ally, get your ass over here, you owe me twenty bucks!”

“No way!” Ally’s voice comes from the kitchen.

Lauren frowns at Dinah. “Wait, what—”

A moment later, her other roommate appears next to Dinah.

“Damn it, Lauren…” Ally mumbles out in frustration. “Couldn’t you keep it in your pants for just one week longer?” She pulls a five dollar note out of the back pocket of her jeans and hands it to Dinah with a frown. “You’ll get the rest later. Way to go, Lo…”

Lauren turns around to look at her roommates. “What do you mean, what are you talking about?” Her eyes go wide. “You guys made a _bet_?”

Dinah smiles proudly. “Ally’s idea.”

“ _Ally_!”

“What?” Ally smiles innocently. “Come on, Lo, any time we said something even remotely related to your job, you started talking about this girl. Camila this, Camila that… and then all this nonsense about never writing your number down on someone’s coffee cup – of course we made a bet.” She rolls her eyes and shakes her head in disbelief. “I guess I just had a little bit more faith in your stubborn ass than Dinah.”

Dinah laughs loudly. “Please… We all know that Lo is whipped as fuck.”

“ _Guys_!” Lauren exclaims, feeling herself flush scarlet right away.

Ally grins at Dinah, ignoring Lauren’s comment completely. “She totally is, isn’t she? Like a smitten fifteen year old.”

“Oh my God…” Lauren breathes out, turning back to the mirror. “I hate you. Both of you.”

Dinah laughs. “Your words mean nothing to me, Jauregui. Remember that one time you said you would never, _ever_ , write your number down on a Starbucks cup? Look how that turned out—”

She only has about a second to back up when Lauren abruptly spins around and tries to throw a towel in her roommate’s face.

“You’re not helping!” Lauren exclaims, sounding a little desperate. “God – can you two please stop being idiots for ten minutes and help me get ready for tonight?” She turns back to the mirror, voice a little shaky as she adds, “I’m really nervous, ok?”

Immediately, Ally’s face breaks into a sympathetic smile.

“All right, all right,” she says, walking up and zipping Lauren’s dress up from behind, straightening the fabric. “There’s no need to be nervous, babe. I’m sure Camila really likes you – and Lo, you look gorgeous, ok? We’re just messing with you a little bit.”

Lauren takes a deep breath. “I just – she makes me – God, I’m so awkward.”

Dinah grins. “That’s a fact.”

Ally shoots her an angry glare, so she puts up her hands in defense and quickly adds, “Hey, but this girl tried to get your number for weeks, right?” She grins, leaning back against the bathroom door. “I’m sure y’all are going to get married one day and do all of that romantic, cliché stuff that you always pretend to hate. And Ally and I will have a field day because you’ll tell us you won’t _ever_ do any of those things, and then you’ll go ahead and do them anyway and we get to take each other’s money for it.” She leans forward and slaps Lauren’s ass from behind. “Everyone happy.”

Lauren doesn’t even bother to reply with something witty. She just stares at her reflection in the mirror, at her messy hair and flushed cheeks. She doesn’t even remember the last time she was so nervous about something. Her heart is racing in her chest as she glances at her phone to check the time. In an hour, she’ll be picking Camila up for a date. A date. An actual date.

Ally smiles at her excitedly, Dinah just looks smug, and Lauren can’t do anything besides blushing and running her hand through her hair.

God – why is she doing this again?

:::

As soon as Camila opens the door, Lauren knows exactly why she is doing this.

Her breath hitches in the back of her throat as she just stares, taking in as many details of the moment as she can – the curve of Camila’s lips as she smiles; the line of her neck; the playful glint in her heavy brown eyes; the soft blush on her cheekbones; the way the fabric of her short, black dress falls against her hips, her legs, her collarbones—

“Wow,” Lauren breathes out.

Camila smiles and softly bites down on her lips. “You look so beautiful,” she says, eyes tracing over the girl in front of her, making Lauren feel like her body is going to give out on her any second, because if _Camila_ thinks that she is beautiful—

“Have you seen yourself?” she mumbles, before leaning forward, pressing a quick kiss to Camila’s cheek as a greeting.

It only lasts about a second and Lauren pulls back right away, because she suddenly realizes what she’s done, and she’s never bold like that. She blushes scarlet in less than a second, but the look on Camila’s face is enough to make her heart shoot speed right up as a wave of confidence rushes through her chest and past her nerves.

“Where are we going?” Camila says then and Lauren swears that her voice sounds slightly raspier than before.

She pulls the door to the passenger seat open, giving Camila a smile. “Come and find out.”

:::

“Ok – so, I know it’s not really fancy, but I thought it would be nice to have some privacy – and we could still go out, you know, later – maybe after the event or something, like for drinks – if you want to, of course – I don’t know, I just thought you might like this for dinner, but of course I don’t really know what you like so I’m sorry if—”

“Lauren,” Camila cuts her off and Lauren falls silent.

She can feel her chest heaving up and down in short breaths, because she really isn’t sure what Camila thinks about it. She clenches her hands tightly together, digging her fingers into her palms, searching for any indication on Camila’s face as to whether or not this was a terrible idea. Camila slowly turns around and bites her lip and Lauren is sure that she’s not going to like it, sure that she—

“God, you know _exactly_ what I like.”

There’s a sharp tug at the back of Lauren’s stomach as the surprise rushes though her chest. “Wait – really?”

Camila takes a step forward, onto the dock. “I can’t believe you’re even – I mean, this is just…” She spins around, dress twirling at the abrupt movement. She smiles, eyes locking right into Lauren’s as she presses her hand down to her chest, right above her heart. “Forest fire. Right here.”

Lauren can feel herself blush at the words. She quickly steps forward, onto the dock as well, hoping Camila doesn’t notice just how shy she’s feeling. She walks to the end of it and spreads the thick blanket and the pillows that she brought along with her out of the wooden edge. Then, she quickly hurries back to where Camila is standing, trying to keep her voice steady as she says, “Make yourself comfortable – I’ll go get our dinner.”

She takes everything she needs from the trunk of her car. As she turns around, she halts for a moment, slightly taken aback by the sight. Camila is sitting on the edge of the dock, heels kicked off, toes dipped into the water, the ships and the lights of the harbor all around her, making her a small silhouette against the heated summer night.

_Wow._

Lauren almost doesn’t want to break the moment, but she also doesn’t want the waffles that she spent an hour making, to get cold, so after taking a mental picture, she quickly hurries forward, slips out of heels and sits down on the edge of the dock as well.

“Should we go swimming?” Camila says, with a bold smile. “Just take our clothes off and jump right off the dock?”

Lauren’s breath hitches in her throat at the way Camila actually manages to make _take our clothes off_ sound like the most casual thing ever. She’s trying very hard to keep her thoughts clear, before stammering out, half panicked, half joking, “I usually take a girl out on a date first, before I get naked with her.”

Camila’s smile widens and her eyebrow kinks up. “Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing right now?”

“Uh, I mean—” Lauren stammers. “That’s just – I mean – yeah. I… I guess.” She coughs. “I – uh – are you hungry?”

She doesn’t wait for Camila’s answer, just pulls the picnic basket closer, rambling her sentences together. “I made waffles –  the whole breakfast for dinner idea. It’s actually a Jauregui family recipe. I also brought wine and strawberries and all these other things to put on them, like bananas and whipped cream and sprinkles. I hope they’re still hot. I mean, I wrapped the tin in like twenty different towels, so they should be but—”

“Oh my God…” Camila breathes out.

Lauren’s a little startled. “What?”

Camila smiles, not saying anything, letting the moment stretch. Her face is brightly lit by the sun sinking down into the water right in front of them, and when she speaks up again, Lauren is so captivated by her eyes and by her lips and everything that it takes her second to really hear the words when Camila puts her hand to her chest again and breathes out softly, “I think you’re going to make me burn right out of my skin tonight.”

:::

“Tell me about something you’ve written about.”

Camila smiles and dips her toes a little further into the water, not saying anything.

“Come on,” Lauren says. “I’m an English major. You can’t deny me this.”

They’ve been sitting on the end of the dock for almost an hour already, taking bites of the waffles and the fruit, talking about all sorts of different things while trying not to stare at each other for too long at a time. Lauren’s whole body is buzzing with the good kind of tipsy, the delicious kind of tipsy – the one that makes her chest feel lighter and her mind bolder and her vision clearer.

“Please…” she says. “I’m really interested in it.”

“All right, all right,” Camila says then, after taking another sip of wine. “You asked for it. But don’t make fun of me, all right? I can’t be responsible for my creative mind.”

Lauren grins. “It’s Harry Potter fanfiction, isn’t it?”

Camila laughs and Lauren thinks it’s the best sound she’s ever heard. Then, Camila takes another sip of wine, before mumbling, “All right, then. I’m so going to regret this, but whatever… I’d like to know what you think, actually, so…”

She takes a deep breath, biting her lip before turning completely so she can look Lauren in the eyes. “I have this theory—” she says, “—that our lives are very long, but we should live them like they’re short.”

It suddenly feels like Lauren’s senses amplify – all she feels is Camila’s bare thigh brushing lightly against her own, the strain of her fingertips as she tries to keep herself from reaching out and tracing her hand over the soft, smooth skin. The details of the night all around them; the faint salt on the wind, the sweetness of the wine, the sugar, the fruit, the light of the sun. All she sees is the glint in Camila’s eyes and all she hears is the husk in Camila’s voice as she starts to explain her theory.

“I have this thing,” Camila says, “where I can’t stop thinking about time. Part of it is due to societal pressure, I think – you know, the whole, graduate before you’re twenty-two, meet someone you love before twenty-five, marry them before you’re thirty and then quickly have a baby because God forbid you’re over thirty-five when you have children.” Her exhale is long and drawn out. “But then there’s also this other part of me, this very egocentric part of me that is constantly concerned with how I, personally, measure up to what I think I should be doing by what age.”

She takes another strawberry, frowning slightly. “I keep thinking about all the stuff I could have done already, but didn’t do and I just catch myself having all these anxious thoughts, like, _fuck why haven’t I published a book yet_ or _why have I never taken up kick-boxing_ or _what if my damn creative writing degree is going to get me nowhere_. You know what I mean?”

Lauren swallows hard, before nodding. “Yeah, I have those kind of thoughts all the time.”

For a moment, they’re both silent. Then Camila says, “But here’s my theory…”

A small smile curls around the corner of her mouth as she sits up a little straighter. “I think the very last thing anyone should do – especially people our age, but actually anyone – is worry about time like that. Because it’s bullshit.” The glint in her eyes intensifies. “We are so young. We are so incredibly young and there is _so much time_ and it’s never too late to do anything. We think it’s too late to start writing, or too late to take up kickboxing or too late to try and be a creative, intelligent, compassionate person in whatever it is that we’re doing. And as a result, we give up or settle for something mediocre, something safe – an uninteresting degree and a boring job and a person that doesn’t really have our heart. When the truth is, there is so much time. Every day and every hour and every fucking second we can start doing something that we’re passionate about – and even if we mess up along the way or things don’t go exactly as planned, there are still more days and more hours and more seconds.”

She smiles and Lauren feels like she can’t breathe because _damn_.

“But this is what I think,” Camila says. “I think that even though we have all this time, we should try to live like we don’t. You know what I mean? Life is long, but we should live it like it’s short. We should think; if I’d die next month, what kind of person do I want to be, what kind of things would I want to do, and how am I going to make sure that my heart burns as much as possible.”

Her eyes lock into Lauren’s. “It’s a little bit paradoxical. We should know that it is never too late to start doing something – but at the same time, we should make choices as if we don’t have all that time. Try and live a little. Make things count. Work hard. Love hard. Read the books we like to read. Kiss the people we want to kiss. Take risks. Create something, anything, that makes us feel a little proud. The whole forest fire idea.”

She falls silent, before smiling softly. “So yeah – that sort of stuff is what I’m writing about.” Then she grins. “That – and a couple of bad poems about how pretty you are and some unfinished Harry Potter fanfiction of course.”

Lauren can’t stop staring.

Camila’s words are spinning in her head and she can’t stop herself from looking at her while her veins are heating up with feelings that she’s not at all prepared for yet, but that she can’t stop from flooding through her body. She breathes out long and slow. Then she forces herself not to look away from Camila’s gorgeous eyes as she mumbles, “I can’t believe I waited so damn long to write my number down on that coffee cup.”

Camila laughs at that, softly bumping her shoulder against Lauren’s. “I can’t believe that either – way to make me doubt my game, Laur.”

Lauren’s heart flutters at the nickname, but she still manages to smile kind of boldly as she replies, “You don’t have to worry about your game for even a single second.”

Camila’s eyes flick down to Lauren’s lips, and immediately something shifts in the tension between them. Lauren’s not sure if it’s the wine or something else – but suddenly all her attention is focused solely on how close Camila is and how easy it would be to just slowly lean forward and—

Camila’s voice is slightly raspy when she breaks the silence. “So – are we… um, what – what time is it? Should we go – or can we stay here and—”

Lauren snaps back right away, checking the time on her phone, a little flustered for thinking the thoughts that are on her mind. “Yeah,” she breathes out. “Yeah, we should probably start to head to the theatre.”

She moves to stand up, but before she can do anything, Camila pulls her back softly, tugs her fingers under Lauren’s chin and quickly presses her lips to Lauren’s cheek, kissing her right below her cheekbone. She smiles at Lauren’s flushed cheeks before saying, “Next time we’re here, we’re going to take our clothes off and go swimming.” She grins. “You promise?”

Lauren bites her lip hard at the thought. All she manages to reply is a heated, “I promise.”

:::

It turns out that they could have easily spent a little bit more time at the harbor, because they still have about half an hour of spare time before the poetry slam event begins. In fact, the theatre hasn’t even opened its doors yet.  

“Do you want to go somewhere else?” Camila asks.

Lauren thinks about it. “We could go to my favorite bookstore? It’s right around the corner and they’re open until eleven on Saturdays.”

Camila grins. “Have I mentioned that I fucking love this date?”

There’s a heavy tug in the center of Lauren’s stomach at Camila’s words. She blushes a little, not sure what to say to that. Before she can say, anything, though, Camila reaches out and grabs Lauren’s hand, interlacing their fingers. “I haven’t mentioned it? Oh, well, just so you know, I fucking love this date. Let’s go to your favorite bookstore.”

Holding hands with Camila feels like the most natural yet most mind-blowing thing. As they make their way through the streets, Lauren can’t help but absentmindedly trace her thumb slowly over the soft skin of Camila’s hand, noticing just how easy and comfortable it feels to hold hands like this, even though her stomach is a nervous mess of flutters. Too soon – and Lauren has never, ever thought that arriving at a bookstore could be ‘too soon’ – they arrive at the bookstore.

“This is it,” she says, slowly pulling Camila to the side.

It’s a small, independent bookstore, tucked away between a restaurant and a women’s clothing store that primarily sells dresses with floral patterns. From the outside, it doesn’t look like much – but Lauren knows better.

She softly smiles and let’s go of Camila’s hand, holding the door open so she can step inside.

“Oh, wow,” Camila says.

Lauren can feel a shiver of pride rush through her chest as she watches Camila take in the space with wide eyes – the depth of the store, the strings of bright lights hanging across the ceiling, the various sofas and couches spread out through the store creating small reading nooks, the old typewriters where customers can write messages or poems on, and of course _all the books._

Before she can say anything else, Camila pulls Lauren into the store. “Oh my God, this is amazing.”

Lauren is unable to stop smiling, tracing her fingers over the spines of the books as she watches Camila’s eyes light up constantly while they wander around. They take turns asking each other the same kind of questions – _who’s your favorite author? have you read this yet? what book made you cry the hardest? laugh the hardest?_ – and Lauren feels so unreasonably happy to be exactly where she is right now; in the middle of a bookstore with the most interesting girl she’s ever met, talking and laughing and unable to stop looking away.

At some point, she catches sight of Rupi Kaur’s _milk & honey _lying on a table – and she’s not able to stop herself. She pulls her journal out of her bag and tears out one of the pages in the back.

“What are you doing?” Camila says, walking up to her.

Lauren can feel herself blushing a little, but she smiles nevertheless. “There’s this thing I do sometimes,” she says. “It’s a little bit crazy, but I like to put little notes inside the covers of my favorite books whenever I see them in bookstores, so that if people are picking them to see if they’ll like them, they can read the recommendation and then maybe they’ll actually buy the books. And this book—” She points to the poetry collection. “—happens to be one of my favorites.”

Camila stares at her hard.

“Oh,” Lauren says, feeling a little nervous suddenly, “Is that stupid? I just kind of like the idea, I guess – someone finding an anonymous note from someone else who really loved the book. But maybe, it’s a little weird, I don’t know – What – w-what are you thinking?”

Camila bites her lip and takes a shaky breath. “I’m thinking that if you’re going to be any more amazing tonight, I’m not going to be able to wait with kissing you until the end of the night, like I told myself I should.”

_Oh._

Lauren swallows hard. Her eyes immediately flick down right to Camila’s lips. “I mean… Maybe you don’t – I mean, I think I…”

Her head is spinning and she can’t even think properly anymore with Camila looking at that. Camila’s smile slowly turns a little wider at Lauren’s flushed face. Then she breathes out, “Can I borrow a pen and some paper?”

Lauren’s startled out of the moment immediately. “Uh – yeah,” she says, running a hand through her hair and searching through her bag. “Here you go.”

Camila smiles at her. “Let’s write some recommendation notes, shall we?”

:::

No matter what Lauren tries, after that, she’s not able to stop thinking about what it would be like to kiss Camila. She’s thinking it while she tucks her notes between the pages of her favorite books. She’s thinking about it any time they accidentally look at each other for too long. She’s thinking about it even when she’s specifically forcing herself _not_ to think about it.

They end up in the back of the store and Lauren thinks about it, while Camila is leaning back against the wall, writing down another note.

She’s not able to keep her thoughts straight. She thinks she’s never wanted to do anything more in her entire life, but at the same time she’s not really the kind of person who just goes ahead and _kisses_ someone, even if that someone is really gorgeous and her lips look like they’re incredible soft and—

“How about this?” Camila says, taking a deep breath and handing Lauren the note she just wrote. 

“You want me to read it?” Lauren asks, taking the note from her a little hesitantly.

Camila doesn’t say anything, just slowly nods and Lauren’s eyes trace over the words Camila just penned down.

_This book is every good thing in the world – steaming cappuccino’s, beautiful eyes; intelligent conversations; the moment when the person you really like finally asks you out; waffles and strawberries; sitting on the edge of a harbor dock with your toes in the water – all of that at the same time._

Lauren’s breath hitches in her throat. There’s a moment in which she looks up and all she notices is the heavy brown of Camila’s eyes and the way her lips are slightly parted—

—and then Lauren drops the note, leans forward and kisses her.

_Oh my God._

It’s soft and heated and Camila only slightly stumbles back in surprise, before letting her hands falling down to Lauren’s hips as she pulls her closer into her, kissing her back. Lauren’s fingers tangle in Camila’s hair, while Camila’s hands dig into the fabric of Lauren’s dress as she parts her lips and deepens the kiss – and then all Lauren feels is heat and shivers and never wanting to stop.

After a moment, though, the reality of what she’s doing catches up with her and she forces herself to pull back.   

Camila’s eyes are a little hazy and her cheeks are flushed and her lips are still parted and it feels like Lauren’s heart is going to burst right out of her chest.

“I couldn’t wait until the end of the night either,” she mumbles a little breathlessly.

Something shifts over Camila’s face and then she breathes out, “Come here.”

—and Lauren kisses her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:
> 
> How was that? As I said, there's going to be an extra part because the night is obviously not over yet ;) Let me know what you think!  
> Have a lovely day!  
> -Blake


	3. III.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:
> 
> Hey lovely people, here's the final part! It's too damn romantic, haha - I don't know what's wrong with me. :) I hope you'll like it! It's my birthday today so I wanted to update. Let me know what you think!

They arrive at the Kingston Theatre twenty minutes late.

Camila’s hair is much messier than before, her cheeks are slightly flushed and Lauren has completely given up on trying to keep her thoughts straight, no longer tipsy on the wine but rather on the feeling of Camila’s mouth hot against her own. It takes a while, but eventually they make it out of the bookstore and into the theatre.

“Can we still go in?” Lauren asks the man at the ticket office, unable to keep the smile from curling around her lips.

“Hm…” he says, frowning deeply. “We don’t really want to disturb the performances – but perhaps, if you walk up to the first balcony and keep quiet, it’s all right.”

“Thank you,” Lauren says, quickly holding the door open for Camila before the man changes his mind.

They make their way up the half-lit staircase, but right before Lauren reaches out to open the door, Camila’s grabs her wrist and pulls her back, making her spin around – and then they’re kissing again.

Lauren can’t help but fall back against the wall, pulling Camila closer against her, all tension and sparks and _oh my God she’s kissing me again_ – and then Camila breaks away, smiling a little smugly. It lasts long enough to leave Lauren completely breathless and short enough that the only thing she wants to do is switch their positions and pin Camila against the wall with her body, kissing her again and again and again until—  

“Sorry,” Camila breathes out with a smile, and Lauren has to bite down on her lip hard to snap herself back into reality. “I really wanted to do that.”

Lauren swallows, before stammering out, “N-no problem – I mean, n-not a problem… like, at all.”

The corner of Camila’s mouth curls even further upwards and Lauren curses herself internally for being so ridiculous the whole time.

(She curses Camila a little bit too for making her entire body forget how to function.)

“Good to know,” Camila grins, flirtatious edge to her voice. “Thanks for that assessment.”

Lauren can feel herself flush, but the way Camila is looking at her makes her heart race, and the tension softens so she laughs as well, before letting her fingers fall to the back of Camila’s neck and abruptly pulling her in to kiss her again.

When she breaks away, she catches the shy glint in Camila’s eyes and the way her exhale is suddenly a little stuttered, and Lauren can’t help but smile and feel her confidence spike.

“Let’s go, beautiful,” she says, relishing in the way Camila’s eyes widen at the bold term of affection. “We’re here for a poetry slam event, remember?” Camila rolls her eyes jokingly, like that’s the last thing on her mind, and Lauren grins. “I thought you said you were serious about being a writer, but you seem a bit unfocused…”  

Camila bites her lip, leaning into Lauren a little more, before winking at her and abruptly reaching for the door. There are only a couple of other people sitting on the balcony, because most of the spectators are on the ground level, so there is still more than enough space on the first row. They quietly make their way to the seats. On stage, two guys are in the middle of a double performance, their voices low and deep, reaching far into the theatre with their explosive poem. After they’ve taken their seats, Lauren takes one more glance at Camila whose eyes are already glued to the stage, and then she leans back in her chair and lets her mind be carried away by the steady beats and well-constructed sentences.

God – she loves this kind of stuff so much.

Every single time someone is brave enough to step onto the stage and share something they’ve created, Lauren can feel her heart swell up. She’s so easily touched by all the stories and impressed by people’s willingness to show emotion, making her laugh or hold her breath or fall back into her chair thinking _damn that was beautiful_ – and she can tell that Camila is feeling exactly the same way.

“Wow,” Camila breathes close to Lauren’s ear while they applaud a young girl who just performed a really intense and personal poem. “That girl was amazing. I wish I could do something like that, you know? I have goosebumps all over my arms – here, feel this.”

She pulls on Lauren’s hand and brings it to her forearm. Lauren bites her lip, not really focused on the goosebumps, but rather on how soft and smooth Camila’s skin is under the tips of her fingers. She traces them slowly over the inside of Camila’s wrist, moving over her pulse until she can’t stop herself from interlacing her fingers through Camila’s and taking her hand in her own.

Camila’s eyes are glinting in the darkness while she smiles, looking down at their hands. Then, she brings Lauren’s fingers up to her lips and kisses the back of her hand.

It’s such a small gesture – something so entirely innocent in comparison to their kisses from before – and yet it sends Lauren’s pulse soaring through her veins. God, she’s never been on a date like this.

“You could be,” she breathes out, leaning closer to Camila’s ear, because she doesn’t want to disturb the performance on stage.

“Hm?” Camila hums against Lauren’s jaw. “What?”

“You could be like that girl on stage,” Lauren says. “Speaking right from her heart, giving people goosebumps all over their body – you’ve been doing it to me all night.”

She can feel Camila’s breath hitch. Their faces as so close to each other and the darkness of the theatre and the pulsing creative air around them only intensify the moment.

“Really?” Camila says then.

There’s a very slight edge of insecurity to her voice and Lauren can’t stop herself from moving even closer, letting her lips fall against Camila’s ear as she whispers, “You make me – feel so many things at the same time – like, so many, _insanely_ intense things.”

She only barely notices Camila’s eyes shutting closed, only barely registers the way her voice has gone all throaty when she eventually stutters out, “Well – you make me – I can’t… I can’t concentrate if you’re so – close to me.”

Lauren can feel her mouth go dry.

_Jesus._

What is happening to her inhibitions? How is she not able to stop herself from constantly crossing every single line she has set for herself?

She absentmindedly registers that the girl on stage ends her poem with “… _you breathe your heart into my mouth and I don’t ever need to write about anything else again_ ” and then the audience starts clapping again and Camila turns her head and Lauren’s lips fall against Camila’s mouth almost accidentally – except it’s far from accidental, of course.

They kiss slowly, softly – shifting closer only ever so slightly – almost too afraid to break the intensity of the moment by going too fast. Lauren absentmindedly registers that someone else begins their poem on stage.

But then Camila presses her body into Lauren a little bit harder, a little bolder and Lauren’s hand falls down to Camila’s bare thigh, even though she didn’t really mean to, and it causes Camila to let out a quiet throaty noise that makes Lauren’s spine arch completely outside of her control – and suddenly Lauren is not aware of anything around her, because Camila shifts forward harshly, kissing Lauren faster and messier and Lauren’s fingers start to press harder into Camila’s thigh with every hot shiver that is running down her back. Her pulse quickens, her breathing turns uneven, and when Camila sinks her teeth softly into Lauren’s bottom lip, biting down on it, Lauren is not able to stop herself from moaning into Camila’s open mouth, accidentally digging her fingernails right into Camila’s skin. Camila gasps and pulls harder on Lauren’s hip, pulling her harder into—

“Ladies and gentlemen!”

They both startle out of the kiss at the same time. One of the boys from the first performance is standing center stage.

“Thank you! Thank you!” he shouts into the microphone. “This concludes our program for tonight. We hope to see you again at one of our upcoming events. Thank you all for coming and give it up one more time for all the wonderful people who performed tonight!”

The whole audience erupts in applause and Lauren falls back into her chair, not daring to look Camila in the eyes, not daring to do anything because her entire body is heated and all she tastes on her tongue is Camila and all she feels is the intensity of the way they just— of the way they just let themselves—

_Fucking hell._

Her mind can’t even form a complete thought.

She bites her lip hard and breathes out slowly, trying to calm her racing heart down, trying not to think of how all she wants to do is pull Camila onto her again—

Camila coughs as everyone around them starts to move. “Should we – should we go?”

“Yeah,” Lauren says, a little too quickly. “Yeah – ok – let’s go.”

:::

The fresh night air thankfully cools Lauren’s heated senses a little. She takes a deep breath, then another. They’re still standing in front of the theatre entrance, trying not to look into each other’s eyes for too long.     

“What did you think?” Lauren asks.

Camila’s face lights up right away. “I loved it,” she breathes out. “I loved it so much – all the poems and the people and you sitting right next to me the whole time, making me feel like…”

She trails off abruptly and Lauren blushes hard.

Her mind is spinning – she doesn’t know what to do anymore. It feels like she’s fifteen years old again, shy and nervous and giddy and excited and scared and overwhelmed, and most of all not having a single clue of what she should be doing. She doesn’t know if this is the moment to offer to drive Camila back to her room already or if it’s still appropriate to ask her if she wants to go out for drinks. She doesn’t have the slightest indication of what social behavior is expected of her at this part of the date, because she’s been crossing her own boundaries for the entire night already. And Camila clearly likes her, but still, she isn’t sure if she _likes_ her, so maybe she should just step on the brake now that she still can – but then again, what if Camila _wants_ to go just as fast as Lauren? What about that? 

She doesn’t even know whether to kiss Camila again or not, doesn’t know if she would be able to stop if she did.

“How—” she stutters out. “How are you feeling?”

Camila smiles softly at her. “I’m feeling really good. Are you ok?”

“Yes,” Lauren says out, a little quickly. “Yes, yes, I’m fine. I’m great, actually. But I just – I want to make sure that you’re… well, you know, that you feel good and that this is ok, that it isn’t – I don’t know, like, too much, or something.”

Camila bites down on her bottom lip, shaking her head softly. Then she says, “You are wonderful, you know that?”

It makes Lauren’s breath catch in her throat. “I don’t – I’m really not—”

“Yes, you are,” Camila cuts in, before Lauren can say anything else. “You are so wonderful and this whole night has been absolutely amazing and I can’t believe you just asked me if I’m ok and if this is… ok – because, it’s so much more than ok, Laur.”

Lauren’s heart swells inside her chest. She forces herself not to look away from Camila when she rambles out, “Do you maybe, like, want to come over to my place for – for drinks or for… tea, or something. Please don’t feel like you have to— I just… don’t really want to say goodbye yet, but if you feel like going home—”

Lauren’s not the kind of girl who usually does things like this. She doesn’t do crazy romantic dates with picnics and blankets. She doesn’t bring someone along to her favorite places in the city right away. She doesn’t kiss a girl like _that_ when she’s not even halfway into a first date and she sure as hell doesn’t invite her back to her place in the spur of the moment.

Lauren also doesn’t write her number down on someone’s coffee cup—

—except if it makes her heart burn up like a forest fire.

And that’s exactly what happens when Camila breathes out, “Yes – I want to come back to your place. I don’t want to say goodbye yet either. Yes – Laur, let’s go.”

:::

To keep from thinking about the fact that Camila is going to be in her bedroom in twenty minutes or so, Lauren says, “What is something you’ve never done but you’ve wanted to do for a really long time already?”

Camila leans back into the passenger seat. “I’ve always wanted to go to Iceland and see the black sand beaches.”

Lauren can feel her eyebrows shoot up at the specificity of Camila’s answer. “You’ve thought about this before?”

Camila shrugs before chuckling softly. “I’m always thinking about these sort of things. Too often probably.”

For some reason, it makes Lauren’s mind snap to the feeling of Camila’s lips on her own and the fact that she’s going to be _in her bedroom_ in a moment, so she quickly tries to distract herself again, by asking, “Why Iceland? Why the black sand beaches?”

“I don’t know,” Camila says. “I like the rarity of it, I guess. I don’t know why but I just can’t stop myself from imagining what it’s like to be in a place like that – where all the laws of nature that we are so used to here are kind of twisted, kind of spun around. Black sand beaches, hot water geysers, the possibility of swimming right in the gaps between continents, the northern lights—”

“Would you let me come with you?”     

The question is out of Lauren’s mouth before she can stop herself. She immediately flushes scarlet. Camila stops talking abruptly and Lauren feels like something snaps inside of her chest because she’s obviously ruined it now, she obviously went too far and she wasn’t even all that serious, just a tiny bit maybe, but she shouldn’t have said it out loud either way, because _damn it_ now Camila probably thinks—

“That would be fucking amazing,” Camila says. She smiles and bites down on her lip. “Wait – you are serious, aren’t you?”

“I mean—” Lauren stutters, not sure what the hell is happening. “I mean, if you— it does sound really amazing, but you don’t have to… like, you don’t have to—”

“Because I’m serious, if you’re serious,” Camila interrupts her.

There’s a low drumming in Lauren’s ears, because she barely even knows this girl but at the same time she feels like she _does_. She knows so many important things about Camila already, maybe not what her favorite colour is or what shows she likes to watch on _Netflix_ , but she does know other details – like the things she writes about and the way her eyes light up when she talks about the books she loves and which lines in a poem can give her goosebumps all over her forearms.

So what if it’s ridiculous to start discussing holiday plans on a first date?

“I’m serious,” Lauren says, because she kind of is. She kind of _really_ is.

Camila smiles so genuinely at her and then she says, “I have another theory. You want to hear it?”

Lauren doesn’t even know if she’s ready for it, but she nods breathlessly. “Of course.”

“I read an article a while ago,” Camila says, “that the sun is dying. It’s going to be billions of years from now on, but the sun is dying – and when it does, the earth will die right with it. In fact, the sun is going to vaporize the earth in its entirety. Eventually, all the hydrogen in the sun’s core will fuse into helium and the sun will start to collapse under its own weight. This will cause the outermost surface layers of the sun to extend so far that Mercury, Venus and Earth will all be absorbed.” Camila grins. “So, in short, the professors quoted in the article were not very optimistic about human survival.”

She leans back into her chair. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot. In a way, knowing that we’re all going to blow to pieces – that the entire earth is going to be swallowed, anyway – would make our lives so unimportant in the grand scheme of things. But I actually think it’s the other way around. _Because_ the sun is going to swallow out entire planet, we’ve got to step up our game. You know what I mean? Make it count while we still can.”

Camila turns her head to look at Lauren. “There’s this quote from the movie _Into the Wild_ which I absolutely love. It goes, _if you want something in life, reach out and grab it._ ”

Lauren can feel her heart start speeding up, when Camila adds, “That’s what I want to do. I want to go right to where my life is happening. Even if that makes me nervous, even if the sun is going to die, maybe _because_ the sun is going to die. Move quickly. Be spontaneous. Do things that make me forget about time. Go to Iceland with you.”         

Lauren bites down on her lip. Then she pulls her hand from the steering wheel and interlaces her fingers through Camila’s.

“I’m serious,” she says, then. “I’m actually, really serious, Camz.”

The smile on Camila’s face makes Lauren’s heart soar right to the sky.

:::

“It’s a work in progress,” Lauren says, running her hand through her hair, nervous once again.

Camila is standing right in the middle of her bedroom, staring at the wall behind Lauren’s bed with wide eyes.

“Oh my God,” she mumbles, tracing her fingers over the ink of the words, the sentences, the poems, the quotes – their black shapes harsh against the white wall. “For how long have you been doing this?”

“Only for a couple of months,” Lauren says. “I started it the day after Dinah and Ally let me move into the apartment. I kind of… wanted to make it my own, I guess.” She bites her lip and then says, “I call it _writing’s on the wall_ – you know, Stevie Wonder.” She laughs a little nervously, before coughing because Camila is not really responding, just staring at the wall, deep in thought. “I don’t know, I thought it was fitting.”

Camila takes another step closer and then reads out, “ _Let’s not say anything. Let’s just smile, look natural. Look young and full of high ideals and hope or something.”_

Lauren shifts. “That’s from _One Day_ by David Nichols. Such a good book.”

Camila bites her lip. “So, are all these—” She widens her arms to gesture at all the quotes inked down on the wall in Lauren’s neat handwriting. “—from books?”

Lauren shakes her head. “It’s anything and everything that I like enough to write down – passages from books, poems, nice things I overhear people say to each other, quotes from movies, song lyrics. Anything.”

Camila takes a long, slow inhale. She just stands in front of the wall, letting her eyes move over all the letters and all the sentences. Lauren shifts a little, before moving up next to her and grabbing a sharpie from her night stand.

“Actually…” she says, moving closer to the wall and bringing her hand up to an empty spot. “I think I need to add something.”

She presses the tip of the sharpie against the wall and writes down _if you want something in life, reach out and grab it._

She’s just about done with it when Camila breathes out, “God – this is sexy.”

Lauren’s gaze falls right to where Camila has her fingers pressed to the wall, tracing the lines of the poem. Lauren can feel herself blush. “Yeah – it’s from that book I pointed out at the store, _milk & honey_.”

“ _the very thought of you,_ ” Camila reads out, “ _has my legs spread apart, like an easel with a canvas, begging for art._ ”

There’s an intense tug in the center of Lauren’s stomach and she can feel her body heat up in the silence after Camila’s words. The tension between them intensifies as Camila slowly turns and Lauren’s eyes lock into the heavy brown. She bites her lip. There is _so much_ in the air between them that she can barely move, and at the same time—

“So,” Camila says, voice hoarse. “Were you actually inviting me in for tea or…”

Lauren’s pulse is racing through her veins. This is not what she does. She doesn’t do dates like this. She doesn’t show all the vulnerable parts of herself to someone she barely even knows. She doesn’t invite girls over to her place and she sure as hell doesn’t sleep with someone on the first date – even if that someone is making her head spin with every second that she keeps looking at her like _that_ , even if that someone can make her entire body shiver just by kissing her, even if that someone just told her that the sun is going to die and that if you want something in life, you reach out and grab it—

—she doesn’t do it, but she does it anyway.

It takes her less than a second to close the distance, and then all she feels is Camila’s mouth hot on her own and her fingers digging into her hips, and Lauren loses herself over and over and over again.

It’s a whirlwind. Nothing but one intense sensation after the other; Camila’s lips, first on her mouth, then on her neck; the fabric of Lauren’s dress sliding down her shoulders, down her waist, down her legs; Camila’s dress falling to the floor as well; heated fingertips on bare skin; the way their bodies seem to burn up at the same time—     

Lauren stumbles backwards until she falls onto the bed with Camila on top of her, kissing her softly, kissing her hotly, hands getting tangled in Lauren’s long hair.

“Is this ok?” Camila says then, leaning back slightly, but still so close, and Lauren can’t believe she’s even asking – as if Camila wouldn’t be able to tell that Lauren is bursting right out of her skin with how much she wants this. She shakes her head in disbelief and pulls Camila even more on top of her, kissing her again.

Camila smiles softly against Lauren’s lips. “Those are mixed signals, baby.”

Lauren’s heart stutters at the term of affection. “I just – it is _so_ ok,” she breathes against Camila’s lip – and it _is._ Her heart is racing and she’s a little nervous but she feels so good and for once she just wants to go with what she _feels_.

So she brings her lips up to Camila’s neck, trailing hot kisses down to the curve to her shoulder. Camila hums and falls against her even more, softly running her hands over Lauren’s thighs and hips and stomach.

“Just tell me if you want me to stop,” Camila whispers, right before stroking lightly over Lauren’s breast, while kissing her collarbone.

Lauren’s eyes flutter closed and her hand falls into the sheets as she clutches hard at them, not able to say anything else, besides a shaky, “I wouldn’t – count – on it.”

Camila laughs and after that, it’s a blur – panties being dragged down; Camila’s thigh falling between Lauren’s; soft gasps and heavy moans as skin meets skin; pulse racing; sharp inhales and stuttered exhales – and then Camila’s fingers start to burn a hot trail down Lauren’s body and Lauren is pretty sure she’ll never properly breathe again, back arching off the mattress with every touch, Camila’s name falling from her lips in a desperate moan the second her fingers slide inside.    

She becomes a multitude of heat and shivers, burning right from the core of where her heart is falling harder with every second, burning right into her bedroom walls, into the night, into the world—

—a forest fire in the center of the universe.  

:::

She wakes up shivering.

There’s a breeze of cool air coming right through the open window, sending chills all over Lauren’s bare skin. She runs her hand over the sheets, feeling around to find the blanket, trying to keep her eyes closed, trying to stay sleepy. But she can’t find the blanket, so eventually she opens her eyes and blinks against the light coming through the curtains that she forgot to close last night—

Camila is gone and Lauren jolts awake in seconds.

The blanket is at the end of her bed. She quickly grabs it and wraps it around her naked body.

_Fuck._ She’s left already.

For some reason, it makes Lauren’s breathing go uneven. She bites her lip. Hard. She stares at the empty space besides her, then reaches out under her pillow to grab her phone. Her fingers shake a little as she unlocks the screen. No messages. She runs a hand through her hair, trying to ignore the heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach. She curses herself silently for feeling upset, because what did she expect – it’s not like they’re actually, like it actually—

She exhales slowly, before pushing the blanket away and getting up. She searches the closet until she finds a pair of black sweats and a t-shirt and then she makes her way to the door. Time to get over it. Moving on. Moving on. It’s not like it meant anything to her, either…

She’s barely put her hand on the door knob, when she stops dead in her tracks as the music reaches her ears. Quick drums, strumming guitars, steady rhythm. What the hell are Ally and Dinah up to now?

Or maybe—

She turns the knob and opens the door.

“ _What’s the time, well, it’s gotta be close to midnight, my body’s talking to me_ , _it says time for danger_ …”

It smells like French toast.

Camila is standing in front of the stove dressed in nothing but her black underwear and one of Lauren’s _The 1975_ t-shirts, flipping over the slices of French toast. Her hair is a complete mess, bouncing up and down as she dances and sings along to the music. Ally is lying on the couch in front of the TV, and Dinah is sitting on top of the kitchen counter, holding a spoon out to Camila as a pretend microphone.

Lauren feels so inexplicably happy all of a sudden – it’s completely, fucking ridiculous, but she doesn’t care. She can’t keep her eyes from Camila as she shakes her hips on the beat and laughs out loud at something Dinah says, before belting out, “ _I wanna put on a tight skirt and flirt with a stranger…_ ”

“Good morning,” Lauren mumbles, stepping into the kitchen, biting her lip in an attempt to hide her crazy smile. Camila spins around right away – tousled hair, wide grin, those goddamn legs. Lauren can’t take her eyes off her for even one second.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Camila says, taking step in Lauren’s direction. “I thought you’d never wake up.”

She pulls on the fabric of Lauren’s shirt and then leans in and kisses her – as if it’s the easiest thing, right in front of Lauren’s roommates. A hot shiver runs down Lauren’s spine at the bold move. Camila’s fingers graze just under the hem of her shirt and Lauren’s back hits the kitchen counter, while Camila softly presses into her and—

“ALLY, PAY UP!”

Camila breaks away immediately and Lauren can feel herself flush scarlet in less than a second as Dinah jumps off the kitchen counter and walks over to Ally, holding out her hand.

Ally groans. “Damn it, not again… I was hoping you’d forget about it.”

“I told you they would hook up!” Dinah screams. “I told you, I told you, I told you! Not sleeping together on the first date, my ass!”

“Lauren…” Ally whines. “What happened to your principles? You’re making me lose all my damn bets…”

“ _Guys_!” Lauren snaps, extremely embarrassed by her stupid roommates.

“What?” Dinah grins. “You’re the one making out with your girlfriend right in the very public space of our apartment.”

“Dinah—” Lauren’s heart almost entirely gives out at the word _girlfriend_ , but Dinah just smiles, not giving Lauren any chance to reply, simply holding out her hand until Ally searches for her wallet and pulls out a twenty dollar note. With a wide smile, Dinah falls down on the couch next to her.

“Really, Lo,” Ally mumbles, shaking her head in disbelief. “What is happening to you? One moment you’re all ‘I’m going to stay in and go to bed at 9 every single day because I’m tired of being a _Gilmore Girls_ obsessed book nerd’ – the next thing I know is you’re hooking up on first dates, keeping us all awake with your moaning—”

“Oh my fucking God,” Lauren breathes out, cutting Ally off and turning right to Camila. “Don’t listen to a single word they’re saying.”   

She runs her hand through her hair, panicked and nervous and embarrassed – but Camila just smiles and laughs and leans into Lauren’s side a little bit, before quickly kissing her cheek and whispering, close to Lauren’s ear, “You’re so damn cute when you’re blushing.” She smiles and then turns back to the counter, “Are you hungry? I wanted to make you breakfast.”

Lauren can’t help but smile at that.

She makes sure Camila misses the angry glare she still shoots in the direction of her roommates, before moving over and grabbing plates from the cupboard.

_Let’s go out tonight, I have to go out tonight…_

“What is this music?” Lauren says. “What are you watching, Ally?”

It’s Camila’s eyes that widen at the question. “ _What_?”

“Oh – am I supposed to know this, or something?” Lauren says.

Camila’s eyes go even wider. “How can you even be gay and _not_ know the soundtrack to ‘Rent’?”

Lauren grins. Her voice lowers a little bit when she counters teasingly, “What makes you think I’m gay?”

At that, Camila blushes a little.

“Well,” she says, taking a step closer to Lauren, despite her flushed cheeks, and mutters under her breath, “That thing we did last night was pretty gay…”

Heat rises up Lauren’s neck. “Oh, was it?”

“Yeah…” Camila takes another step closer. “Remember? You got yourself pretty busy with your hands under my dress and your mouth all over—” She leans over and whispers it in Lauren’s ear, causing her to take a sharp intake of breath as Camila’s lips graze over the skin of her neck for a moment. Then, Camila falls back and grins. “… I’d say that was pretty gay. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Lauren feels hot and feverish, but before she can say anything, Dinah comments dryly from the couch, “We’re still here.”

Camila smiles and pulls back completely, focusing her attention back to getting the breakfast ready – and all Lauren is able to think is that Camila looks so good in her apartment.

It’s such a ridiculous thought, one that makes her stomach twist with nerves, but at the same time she can’t help but realize it. Yesterday evening was so good and last night was so good and _this_ is so fucking good, watching Camila dance through her kitchen with messy hair, wearing Lauren’s _The 1975_ t-shirt.

It’s a ridiculous thought – but Lauren thinks it anyway.

:::

She has to work in the evening. Normani corners her not even two minutes after she’s walked into Starbucks _._

“So,” she says, hands on her hips. “How are you?”

“Uh,” Lauren says. “I’m – good?”

“Really?” Normani says. “You’re good? You’ve had a good day? A good evening? A good week?”

Lauren tries to walk past her colleague, but Normani won’t let her, so instead she has to shuffle around in her spot a little uncomfortably, before mumbling, “Yeah – I’ve had a good day.”

“Did anything happen?” Normani says. “Like, anything at all? Anything you might want to share with me? Anything where you feel like, yes, that is something I definitely have to tell Normani about. Like, anything at all?”

Lauren can feel the frown forming on her forehead. “Mani, what are you—”

“ _Damn it, Lauren_ ,” Normani cuts her off, right before stepping forward abruptly and wrapping her arms around the other girl in a tight hug, squealing out in an extremely fast pace, “I’m trying to get you to tell me that you finally gave that girl your number and that you went out with her yesterday, because I want you to say it, because I don’t want you to know that I already _know_ because Alex told me, like, three days ago – but damn it, you broke your oath and half the team here owes me money so I need you to admit to it already, you idiot!”

Lauren is so shocked by Normani’s sudden outburst that she can’t do anything besides sputter out, “Why – why the fuck does everyone keep betting on my love life?”

Normani breaks away immediately. “That’s completely beside the point. How was your date? What happened? I want to know everything!”

Lauren grins at the way Normani – who is usually all business and _get to work, Jauregui_ – is almost physically unable to contain her excitement.

“It was nice,” she says, blushing hard, because obviously it was way more than _nice_ …

Normani sees right through it as well. “Oh, come on,” she scoffs. “Look at your face – you look like she already asked you to marry her or something.”

It’s relatively quiet in the café, so between serving the few customers that are there, they spend most of the time talking about Camila – Normani’s smile getting smugger with every bit of information Lauren lets her in on, and Lauren trying her very best not to ramble too much or blush too much or get herself lost again in the memories of last night.

At some point, Lauren’s got her back to the counter, rinsing out the milk cans, when she hears the door open.

“Mani, could you maybe run the counter for just a sec?” she calls out.

When Normani doesn’t respond, Lauren looks sideways at her colleague.

“Nah,” Normani says then, with a smile, eyes on the door. “I think you should.”

There’s something in Normani’s voice that makes Lauren abruptly startle out of what she’s doing, because maybe, just maybe, the suggestive edge to Normani’s voice means that—

In her hurry to turn around, Lauren turns the faucet the wrong way, making the water spray right down her shirt. _Oh my God._

She spins around to find Camila staring at her with the widest smile on her face, shaking her head in disbelief as she says, “This is just too damn perfect.”

Lauren feels her eyes go wide, as she pulls on her wet t-shirt, because how can this even be happening _again_? But then Camila leans forward over the counter, adding, “Maybe you should take it off.”

—and it makes Lauren’s entire chest light up.

She laughs out loud. “When will I ever learn how these damn taps work? Oh my God, I’m such an idiot.”

Camila tugs her bottom lip back with her teeth. “You’re fucking gorgeous, that is what you are.”

At that, Lauren blushes hard. It’s only been a couple of hours since they last saw each other, but her body is having all sorts of reactions to the fact that Camila is standing right in front of her, smiling at her like that, saying _those_ kind of things.

“A cappuccino?” she asks, a little breathlessly.

Camila nods. “Yes, please.”  

Lauren tries not to let herself get caught on Camila’s eyes while she takes a coffee cup to write down the order. She pauses with the sharpie in her hand and then quickly scribbles down _you look beautiful_ on the cup instead of Camila’s name, because Normani appears very busy with clearing tables at the far end of the café so it looks like Lauren will be the one making the cappuccino. Besides – Camila does look beautiful.

She stirs the milk and brews the coffee and all the time Camila is smiling at her and Lauren’s shirt is still wet, which is just too damn typical and she’s feeling flustered, but in the good and happy kind of way.

“There you go,” she mumbles, handing Camila the cappuccino and relishing in the fact that the faintest blush spreads on her cheeks when she reads Lauren’s words.

Then Camila says, “Can I borrow that sharpie for a second?”

Lauren is a little taken aback by it, but then she says, “Yeah – sure. I should probably go… put on a different shirt.”

Camila smirks, before saying, “Sure – not that that I’m not enjoying the view, though.”

Lauren grins. “I’ll see you in a bit?”

“Of course,” Camila says.

Lauren quickly signs to Normani that she’s going into the backroom for a moment. As soon as she steps over the doorstep, she takes a moment to lean back against the door, eyes closed and smiling. Then, she makes work of her t-shirt, pulling it off and grabbing a clean one in the pile of work shirts. 

When she walks back out again, Camila is still standing at the end of the counter, taking sips of her cappuccino. Apart from her, the café is almost entirely empty. Normani is back behind the counter. She grins extremely smugly as soon as Lauren appears, which makes Lauren frown a little, but she doesn’t think too much of it.

“So,” Camila says, as Lauren walks up to her. “The strangest thing just happened while you were back there.” She smiles playfully. “Someone bought you a coffee.”

Confusion rushes through Lauren. “W-what?” she mumbles, not catching on.

“Here,” Camila says, pushing the cup of coffee that is standing next to her own towards Lauren.

Lauren takes it, a little hesitantly – but then, as soon as she catches sight of the messy handwriting that is scribbled all over the cup, her heart starts to race inside her ribcage as she traces her eyes over the message.

_To the insanely gorgeous girl behind the coffee counter. What are you doing right now? I thought maybe we could do that thing where you make me stare at you like an idiot because you’re just so damn beautiful and I couldn’t take my eyes off you even if I tried. Or maybe that thing where you say my name in that incredibly sexy, raspy way that pulses heat right through my veins. Or maybe that thing where you make my thoughts spin – that thing where you make me write entire novels in my head because I don’t want to forget even a single second of you setting my heart aflame like a fucking forest fire. Shall we do that thing? Alex is going to take over your shift, apparently. Such a coincidence. Let’s get out of here and book a holiday to Iceland or something._

Lauren’s exhale is long and drawn out as she looks up and meets Camila’s eyes – and it is everything.

All she can say is, “Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:
> 
> Oh my God... sooo cheesy! I hope you liked it! :) I guess I just felt like writing something insanely romantic. Let me know what you think! I hope it was a satisfying enough conclusion. Have a lovely day!
> 
> -Blake

**Author's Note:**

> A/N:
> 
> How was that? Hope you liked it! :) Let me know what you think! 
> 
> -Blake
> 
> P.S. 'Aquarium' by David Vann is honestly one of the best books I have ever read. It's an emotional rollarcoaster but so damn good. Go check it out!


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